Understanding
by xSeshatx
Summary: {Oneshot} After Egypt, Seto Kaiba can't help but think about Yugi differently. Being the man he was, he also couldn't help but tell Yugi.


**'this' is thinking "this" is speaking**

'Maybe there was some truth to all this chaos.'

Kaiba wasn't going to admit that he had no logical explanation for anything he had witnessed. He barely even considered the possibility that he might say those words out loud. He was even less likely to admit that he was sort of sad to see the spirit leave. The spirit, his real rival, had went back to his own time. What possible logical explanation was there? There were two Yugis dueling each other underground in Egypt! No way he could even attempt to put it into words without using the word 'magic' at least three times. He understood enough of the situation to know what happened but he couldn't figure out how any of it happened. He knew that there were two Yugis dueling and he knew why it was happening, but he had absolutely no idea how his rival multiplied, and he couldn't fully comprehend how he knew which Yugi was the real Yugi and which was the spirit. They looked the same, but there was just something about the spirit...

When the night ended and the spirit was officially gone from their world, Kaiba didn't want to admit he wished the day had ended differently. Mokuba had been sad because of the departure of the spirit and anything that hurt Mokuba should never have happened, but even if Mokuba hadn't been affected, Kaiba still was. He chose to remain in mostly silence as Yugi and his friends said goodbye, talked about the events, and tried to comfort each other. Normally, he would have had many snarky remarks to try to tear them down, but even he couldn't be that cruel. After all, even if he didn't understand what was going on, he knew that Yugi, Téa, Tristan, and Joey all cared about the spirit and were good friends with him. They just lost one of their best friends. Kaiba didn't have best friends, but he did once upon a time. He knew how badly it hurt to say goodbye. He couldn't be that cruel.

'How is Yugi able to hold himself together? The tears he shed couldn't possibly be enough for this situation, and yet his head is held high. I assumed the confidence he is portraying now was a trait of the other Yugi because Yugi never looked so confident when he isn't dueling, and he's never looked so calm when something terrible has happened.'

What was terrifying to Kaiba was the fact that he felt himself thinking about Yugi as an equal as opposed to a 'geek' or a 'dweeb.' Nobody, with the exception of Mokuba, was an equal to Seto Kaiba, but he couldn't help but look at Yugi with the utmost respect. He had respected Yugi ever since their first duel together because it was hard not to respect the person who defeated him in a duel fair and square, but that was all he respected him for. Now, looking at Yugi with his head high and a smile on his face, he couldn't help but feel pride in the fact that he knew that strong individual, and he felt his respect grow no matter how hard he tried to talk himself out of it. He was also looking at Yugi's friends a bit differently. He never had too much of a problem with Téa and Tristan, useless as they were. They were Yugi and Joey's cheerleaders, so there was little they did that directly affected anything, but he didn't hate them, and even then he started to respect them a small bit, too, because anybody who willingly put themselves in a situation like that ought to be respected. Then there was Joey who he couldn't stand, and Joey couldn't stand him either. It was a mutual hatred, but he never really hated Joey. He thought he was annoying and a poor duelist, but he never hated him, not really. At that moment, he couldn't even find it in himself to try to hate him.

'Why must Yugi be so impossible to hate?'

Kaiba knew he really needed to get out of there and go home. The more time he spent with Yugi and his friends, the more he started to maybe possibly like them, and that was unacceptable. For years, he saw how much caring about people got everybody in trouble. Heck, he just witnessed the hardest goodbye he ever had to, and he knew he should want to work to make sure he was never the one who had to say goodbye. The only person who wasn't able to avoid any of the trouble was Yugi because he had shared a body with that spirit who attracted danger, but the others didn't need to be there. They put themselves in danger day in and day out to protect each other because that's what friends did, so if Kaiba was looking at them and thinking that he could tolerate their presence, he needed to leave because he wasn't about to be so stupid to get anymore involved with them since that meant more and more time in danger from something or another.

Leaving Egypt wasn't much of a problem for Kaiba or Mokuba, seeing as they had their own private jet, but being on a private jet away from everybody did have some drawbacks. Kaiba couldn't get his thoughts off of Yugi and Mokuba was providing little distraction. He didn't want to think of Yugi anymore. He wanted to get on with his life, knowing that all the danger they had endured for years was over. Nothing else was going to threaten his life or the life of his brother anymore because the man who brought all that danger to them in the first place just walked through a portal of sorts to go back to where he belonged. All of their battles, all those moments where Kaiba couldn't figure out what was happening, and all those enemies that came with the intent of destroying the world was done and over with. They were safe, and Kaiba didn't want to start thinking on why he was so confident with that fact. He knew that if he did, he'd start thinking that it was his past life of being Priest Seto, the cousin of the Pharaoh of Egypt, that was portraying this feeling of calm, or maybe it was the spirit of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Kisara, who was speaking out to him in a way he couldn't even notice just to tell him that he would be alright. All he knew was that he was safe, and it was because that spirit left.

If anything, Kaiba knew he should have hated Yugi. If it wasn't for him solving that Millennium Puzzle and bringing forth the spirit who brought with him all the evil in the world, he would never have been involved in anything he had been involved in. He wouldn't have had to go after Pegasus for stealing Mokuba's soul (which he still couldn't understand), and he never would have needed Yugi to save both of them when Kaiba failed. There would be no Rare Hunters being led by Marik who had been taken over by his darker side, and there would be no dangerous battle with the Egyptian Gods. No Dartz, no Egypt, no nothing.

'But if I hadn't known Yugi, he never would have saved me and my brother from my own creation when the Big Five turned their backs on me and tried to keep me trapped in my own virtual world. He never would have saved me and my brother from my crazy step-father or his son.'

It made no sense to Kaiba that he could be an absolute jerk to Yugi and his friends all the time yet they would always come running to make sure both him and Mokuba would be safe. He knew he would always be in Yugi's debt for the amount of times he saved Mokuba, and that wasn't even counting making Mokuba happy. Mokuba enjoyed being friends with Yugi and all of them, and he enjoyed their company. Being in the situation Mokuba was in, being a child with bad memories of the death of their parents and a crazy step-father before turning into 'Seto Kaiba's little brother' who was homeschooled and barely speaking to people his own age, he was probably a lot sadder than other kids. Mokuba was a kid, and sometimes Kaiba was able to see some of that life return to Mokuba when he was with Yugi and them. He'd never make it up to Yugi, at all.

By the time the jet made it back home, Kaiba knew he had to talk to Yugi. Kaiba was full of pride, but he also felt very responsible to speak the truth to the people he respected. He respected Yugi so he wasn't going to pretend that his feelings on him hadn't changed because of what he witnessed in Egypt, and it was about time he thanked him for being a good friend to Mokuba who was years younger than all of them. They returned home, Kaiba made sure that Mokuba ate what the chefs in the building cooked for him, and then he waited until Mokuba was asleep in bed after the long day. When he made his trip to visit Yugi, he wanted to be alone. He didn't want anybody to know about his chat with his card game rival.

Trying to remain lowkey, Kaiba didn't take a private jet or a fancy limo. Instead, he took a car and drove himself. Nobody needed to know he was anywhere but where he should be. Parking out front of the Game Shop, Kaiba took a moment to consider what he was really doing there. It was late at night. Yugi was bound to be asleep, not to mention Yugi's grandfather and his parents and anybody else who may live there. Perhaps the rest of Yugi's friends were also there, spending one last night with him while they all processed the departure of that spirit who had lived inside of Yugi for however many years. Maybe the wound would be too fresh for Yugi to even think about him, let alone wish to speak to him. Just as Kaiba decided he had made a mistake coming over, he forced his chin high with the confidence that usually naturally consumed him and opened the car door because he didn't make that journey over just to talk himself out of it at the last minute. That wasn't who Seto Kaiba was.

Kaiba wasn't at all surprised when the door to the Game Shop opened up and Yugi was stood in the doorway, dressed in the day's attire as if it wasn't nearly midnight. Somehow, Yugi had known Kaiba was on his way over, and he was ready for him by the time he arrived. He found it best not to question the sixth sense Yugi had, even before he knew anything about Yugi's quests to save the world with an ancient spirit. "Kaiba?" Yugi said, his voice portraying confusion which contradicted Kaiba's assumption that Yugi knew he was on his way. "What are you doing here?"

"I came here to talk to you," he said, getting right to the point because Seto Kaiba didn't beat around the bush. "The past couple of days have brought many questions to my attention that I cannot answer in any way that makes sense, and it has led me to believe that maybe all that hocus pocus you have been talking about for years has been a reality. I hate to be wrong, but I cannot pretend I am right when I no longer believe I am. I have seen things that I believed were impossible, yet they still happened."

"Was it answers you came here for?" Yugi asked, staring up at Kaiba with less confidence and more anxiousness and nervousness. Kaiba couldn't help but take notice how different Yugi looked without that pyramid hanging around his neck.

"I owe you an apology," Kaiba said bluntly. "I ignored everything you have said for years, instead choosing to pretend you were not capable of growing up, when in reality you weren't living in some fantasy in your mind but rather working to save this world from danger. I came here to apologize for giving you such little credit for everything you have become, and I never truly thanked you for all those incredible duels you and I have participated in together."

"You never had to say any of that, Kaiba," Yugi said after a few moments of silence. "I understood earlier by your silence. I've always thought we've been under a mutual understanding where some things didn't need to be said, like when you consider the truth in something I have said or when you gave me that card to win the tournament even after I won our duel. You wouldn't have just given me that card for no reason."

Truth be told, Kaiba hadn't even really thought about why he gave Yugi that card. It was just something he did without letting himself consider, because thinking any nice thoughts towards Yugi used to be torturous so pride would get in the way. All he knew was that Yugi needed that card so he supplied it for his...friend. "I have also been unfair to you," Kaiba admitted. "I never gave you the credibility you deserve as a great duelist, despite you winning every duel against me and other tough opponents. I dismissed everything you have ever said and everything I have ever heard pertaining to you."

"I've never looked at you differently for any of that," was Yugi's quiet response. "I know how all of this must have looked from an outsider's point of view. It does seem sort of crazy, doesn't it?" Yugi sighed and leaned against the outside wall of the Game Shop, staring at the ground for a moment before looking up to stare at the stars. "There are so many things in this world that doesn't make any sense. Nothing that happened with any of us makes any sort of sense, but it's always been easier to just go with it than to question it. I don't know how Pegasus was able to steal your soul, but I know he did. I don't know how a thousands of years old spirit was able to survive inside of the Millennium Puzzle, but I know he did and I know why, and adding on to that, I have no idea how he was able to be ripped out of the puzzle and given a separate being for us to duel. It's just something I know happened, but even I can't understand the logic as to how. I know how hard it must be for you, considering how you're a thousand times more skeptical than me. Seeing is believing, sure, but understanding just might mean more."

"Something else has been on my mind since that short experience in ancient Egypt," Kaiba said, uncharacteristically hesitant to elaborate.

"You want to know about your relation to me," Yugi almost declared, finally looking away from the stars to meet Kaiba's eyes.

"How do you know that?"

"The Pharaoh and I shared a mind, when we wanted to," Yugi explained. "He allowed me to see into what he saw, and he shared his newly found memories with me without having to say a word. I know everything about him, and I know about you seeing the spirit of the Blue Eyes White Dragon. Priest Seto was the Pharaoh's cousin."

"Does that make us cousins?"

Yugi smiled, and Kaiba could tell he was amused by the question in a non-judgmental way. Maybe he was thinking about how their relationship would differ if they were cousins, because the thought to Kaiba was, admittedly, chuckle-worthy. "I don't think we're cousins," Yugi finally said. "I think we're reincarnations, maybe. I don't understand genetics as well as scientists do. We all have common ancestry, do we not? It's been thousands of years. I'm sure even if we were related, it'd be such a little percentage for it to have stopped being legit hundreds or thousands of years ago."

"It has to mean something." The fact that he discovered all of that information and have none of it be relevant to the present day was frustrating. What was the point of knowing his past-life was related to Yugi's past-life? It was meaningless to know that information if it didn't affect their lives.

"We're still involved in each other's lives, as much as you may have tried to avoid it, Kaiba. Somehow, our past lives have met up again in the present day, even if we aren't actually related. I would say that means a lot."

"What are the other reincarnates?"

"I wouldn't say there's too many of those, but I know the souls that have stuck with us. Kisara, that girl you saw, is the soul inside of your Blue Eyes White Dragon, and she was destined to end up with Priest Seto, so she has stuck with him and, in turn, with you. The Pharaoh's best and trusted friend, Mahad, protected him as the Dark Magician. Even during that last duel between me and the Pharaoh, I felt their connection. The souls have stuck around, even though the card game Duel Monsters didn't exist until relatively recently."

Kaiba's head was spinning, although he seemed unaffected on the outside. He didn't want to believe in the heart of the cards, but there had to be a reason he was drawn to Blue Eyes White Dragon. Even when Obelisk the Tourmentor was in his deck, he had an emotional connection to Blue Eyes, so he knew it wasn't about power. He was offended if anybody else pretended they could wield the power of Blue Eyes. If she was the love interest of his past life, it made sense. If that girl was supposed to end up with Priest Seto, then he understood why he was so protective of his card, and why he was so possessive. "All that...it's incredible," he finally said, momentarily dropping his demeanor to slouch and rub at his eyes. "The more I think about all that has happened the past few years, the more incredible it all seems."

"I never thanked you for fighting with the Pharaoh, Kaiba. He needed the help to stay in the battle. If it wasn't for you, I don't know if he would have won that battle," Yugi said, changing the direction of the conversation, and Kaiba didn't want to be grateful, but he was, because he was too proud to continue admitting how amazed he was.

"That monster killed two innocent children," Kaiba admitted, eyes hardening at the memory. "I tried to stop him, but I was too late. I started dueling to avenge their deaths, and I felt the spirit of that girl pulling at me from Blue Eyes, and then the other you fused himself with my Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon, but that monster destroyed everything, including the Egyptian Gods. I would be lying if I said I wasn't surprised that you were able to pick up that victory."

Yugi smiled sadly and looked at the ground, effectively reminding Kaiba that Yugi just lost a friend. "It seemed like he could do anything, no matter how hopeless it seemed."

"How did you know you were going to defeat him in your duel? You stopped me from leaving, knowing I was going to witness his defeat."

"I had to win," Yugi said simply, as if that completely answered Kaiba's question, and somehow, it did. Yugi knew he had to win that duel, so he knew that he would. If he didn't, the spirit wouldn't have been able to leave, so he had to win. Yugi's vague answer gave Kaiba everything he needed to know. "I'm sorry, by the way, that you didn't get the chance to duel the Pharaoh before he left. I know you wanted to be the one to duel him, and thank you for offering me cards to beat him. I don't know if you did it because you wanted me to win or because you wanted him to lose, but I appreciated your offer, because I know you wouldn't have given anybody else that opportunity."

"You proved to be the true King of Games. I will have the chance to duel you again. I gave you the opportunity because I wanted to see you win, because I wanted you to prove he wasn't responsible for your King of Games title, and you're right: I wouldn't have made that offer to anybody else," Kaiba answered. "And on that note, I have said and asked everything I intended to when I came here tonight, so I'll be going now. I expect another match from you someday, between me and you with no help from that spirit."

"You'll get your match, Kaiba," Yugi said, beaming at him with a very bright smile, portraying some of the childlike innocence Kaiba was used to seeing on Yugi before they ever properly met.

"Oh, and Yugi?" Kaiba said, his back to the smaller duelist since he had already turned to leave.

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry about your friend. For what it's worth, you made him proud during that match. He wouldn't have left if he didn't feel you were ready to be on your own, and you proved you were more than capable. He was a good guy. You all are." And then he got in his car, leaving without giving Yugi the chance to respond, because they had a mutual understanding that some things just didn't need to be said.


End file.
